Kia has come a long way since it first entered the U.S. market decades ago. In 1993, the year Kia first entered the market, the Korean carmaker sold just 212 cars.
But Kia kept refreshing its designs. Sales grew to just over 237,000 in 2003, a decade after Kia’s U.S debut. It also added unique features, like the “tiger nose” grille, conceptualized by then chief designer Peter Schreyer and now a recognizable feature of the Korean company’s cars.
Kia sold over 780,000 cars in the U.S. last year. Together with parent company Hyundai, Kia is now one of the country’s top-selling carmakers, and also its top-selling EV manufacturer outside of market leader Tesla.
The transition to electric cars is giving Kia another chance to set itself apart and design a “new type of premium,” says Karim Habib, Kia’s current head of global design.
Habib’s love for cars comes through in his conversation with Fortune, praising the “quiet and smooth rides” in a Mercedes-Benz or Rolls Royce, brands that many associate with high quality.
EVs give that same image, he says. “Our EVs—the EV6 or EV9—have a lot of power but they’re super smooth and serene, so there’s kind of an innate feeling of luxury to it.”
For Habib, an EV’s luxury feel comes down to how it’s built. Traditionally, premium cars have a long wheelbase and a short overhang. That’s due to where they house the engine, just behind the front axle for performance and handling purposes.
EVs may not have a huge engine, but they do have a huge battery. The weight of the battery means putting it in between the wheels would result in better performance and handling, giving EVs the same long wheelhouse and short overhangs associated with premium cars.
“EVs allow us to create, in my view, a very premium experience for people who may not have been able to afford it in the past,” Habib says.
For example, the Kia EV6, launched in 2022, is a good example. Besides an evolution to the “tiger nose”, the EV 6 also sports a long wheelbase with a short overhang. The car also looks wider and lower, giving it a sportier feel. Habib points out too that the car’s organic shape is sectioned off at the end with a tail lamp, creating something that’s “jarring,” but unique. Since its launch, the EV6 has won over 30 awards, including the prestigious Red Dot Design award.
Aspirational but affordable
Kia’s also rethinking what a car’s interior looks like, now that vehicles don’t have to make space for an internal combustion engine. Habib explains that large batteries push the car’s wheels “as much as possible to the corners,” giving designers a lot more space to work with.
The EV9, for example, has second row seats that can turn 180 degrees to the rear.
It’s part of a larger strategy to redefine what owning a Kia means.
“Aspirational doesn’t have to mean expensive,” he says. “It could mean something you want to spend time with, and it should make your experience more pleasant on a day to day basis.”
Habib’s work with cars stretches back two decades, starting at BMW as a production designer in 1998. He eventually became BMW’s head of design in 2012, then took the executive design director position at Infiniti in 2017, then moved to Kia in 2019.
But he admits working on EVs has revolutionized how he thinks about cars.
“As a designer, it completely has changed my perspective on car design and the possibilities that car design now has,” he says.
Rebrands
But rebranding can be tricky. On Wednesday, Jaguar Land Rover unveiled a new version of its logo, spelling the brand as “JaGUar.” Yet commenters derided Jaguar’s video unveiling the new brand, featuring several models–and not a single car. “Do you sell cars?” Tesla CEO Elon Musk jokingly asked on X in response to the rebrand.
Kia revamped its own logo in 2021, moving away from the letters “KIA” in an oval, to a more dramatic and angular font. The rebrand originally confused consumers, who read the logo as “KN” instead of "Kia".
Habib admitted that Kia tweaked the logo’s typography to emphasize the “A” a bit more after customer feedback. But he notes the rebrand was critical for where the carmaker wanted to go.
“A logo should be a symbol that represents who you are, and we changed that to represent the Kia we want to be,” Habib says. “If we hadn’t changed the logo we wouldn’t be designing the cars we’re designing. If you imagine the EV6 or EV9 with the old logo on the hood or in the rear, it just wouldn’t work in my view.”
Fortune’s Brainstorm Design conference is returning on Dec. 5 at the MGM Cotai in Macau. Panelists and attendees will debate and discuss “Experiments in Experience,” designs that blur the line between the physical and digital worlds to captivate users and foster lasting connections. Register here!
